Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Rather than get lost in the flood of Revit 2014 information, I thought I would wait until closer to the time that most people will actually start installing and using it. The post below is just a collection of my notes and things that I find particularly interesting or exciting about the 2014 release - oh, and there are some pretty cool tips included too :-)

Non-rectangular crops can be locked
You can lock the edges of multiple Plan view non rectangular Crop Regions to a set of model lines. Nudging the lines will adjust the sketch in all 'locked' views.

Client based DWF review will probably die slowly and be replaced by web methods
Autodesk Design Review development is slowly stalling, and being replaced by cloud-based collaboration methods. Nothing really new here, but one day we will probably say goodbye to standalone DWF viewers in lieu of web viewing and markup tools.

Exploding ACIS
For this to work, the source import should be a 3D ACIS solid from AutoCAD or a SAT file from Inventor,
Rhino or similar.

Schedule Formatting
Click the column top (letter) to select the whole column and change font for that column.

Dockable Palettes
Can be docked at top of screen.

Non-rectangular crop regions - limitationAnnotation crops are still rectangular only

Slow install?
Could be because content is being downloaded during install. Un-tick content packs to try to speed up the install.

Tabbed Browser Panel
For example, drag Properties on top of Project Browser. Tabs are at bottom.

Project Browser Organization
Can now have more (up to 6) 'levels' of grouping.

Displacement set tips
How to set up nested levels of displacement:

Select a wall with a window & Displace both of these

Tab select the Window and Displace it again

If you reset the window it will go back to its original location, to get it back in the wall you need to select the wall's displacement set, Edit and Add the Window to that Set.

You may find it easier to displace a single element first, and then use the Edit / Add functionality to put other elements into that Displacement set.

Citrix Licensing
BDSP version of Revit 2014 (Onebox) will now be supported in Citrix environment
(removed the need for special licensing to be used for either Citrix
virtualization methods, no concerns about obtaining
Citrix certification and QA support for all products in a Suite)

where once BIM managers wanted to roll the latest
version of Revit out to their staff on projects, they are now taking a
more pragmatic approach to deployment & often holding back for
12 months or even skipping a release.